Letters from Elder Travis Neuberger called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Monday, December 10, 2012

All Over the Place

I remember Elder Wilson was always a
big fan of top ten lists as a missionary. I'd have to say that this week
may top the charts of top ten craziest/strangest weeks of my mission.

We started the week on Monday with
Elder Williams (who’s in my district and in my same church building) losing his
mini missionary A personal problem came up and he needed to be
done immediately. That was just fine and the President was able to find
him a replacement for a couple of days without any problems.

Then on Tuesday: If you were
wondering what the Mongolian word for tuberculosis is its curye. We got a
call Monday night from the doctor that said he would need to see us at 10 sharp
the next morning. We knew that there had been some trouble with Elder
Enkhdorj's mission physical, but we weren’t sure how serious. When
we get to the office the President came out and gave me the slow two hand
handshake, looks me in the eye and says "we're going to get this all worked
out. Don’t worry about anything."
So of course that gets me a bit freaked out. Pretty much everyone
who works in the office knew and was saying the same kind of things. When
we got to the doctor he told us that my companion’s chest x-ray was positive for
tuberculosis and we needed to get to the hospital immediately. He
has to wear a mask and the doctor told me how my living with him for the past 5
weeks might have put me in some sort of danger. We went to a few
hospitals and finally found the right one. Then in the biggest plot twist
we got to the hospital and the doctor looked at the x-ray and said there’s no
problem. So I’m trying to explain for the Canadian doctor that we had
sent the x-ray to Salt Lake and they had called it positive. But he said there
is nothing they would do so we tried another hospital. Same thing. Apparently
everyone in Mongolia responds positively to TB tests and it’s no
big deal. Using the “better safe than sorry” principle my companion was
still released from his mini mission and I was immediately put with Elder
Williams and Elder Gantogtokh who is supposed to be finished the next day so he
can go to his home branch and get the Melchezidec Priesthood (more on that to
come)

This is where the week gets
awesomely crazy because on top of covering two wards and two areas we now have
two English teaching schedules, 4 baptismal interviews to conduct and Elder Gantogtokh
has 2 hour choir rehearsals every other night at the Bayanzurch.
Although we weren't able to meet with a large amount of people
this week the fact that we were able to get everything else done was nothing
short of a miracle. Also I had some tests for TB and it’s all good. I was completely
negative.

The week went pretty much like that
with the most excitement coming on Sunday. Since Elder G went to his own ward
with Elder Williams for the a fore mentioned reasons I was
left with ward member for the first half of the day as the only missionary for
both wards and the entire west end of the city. I had to keep
explaining to people that I really had no companion. By the way, the choir
sounds amazing as always and they are singing at the circus on the 21st (tsag
gargaj chadwal ochoroi). The circus is a large indoor theatre venue in the
city.

This week the senior couple the Gardners
decided to visit both the Unur and Songino Wards which meant translating for
them for each service which was fine and I was super lucky because both wards
had their annual primary programs. As long and the kids don’t completely eat
the microphone it’s the easiest thing to translate ever. I’m pretty sure
each of these primary programs rivals the cuteness of any of those back home. And
it’s amazing how some things are always the same: the primary president is there
to whisper in the ears of those who get a bit frightened, and there’s
that one kid who is singing with a few extra sharps and flats, but also
manages to be the one singing the loudest, and there are smiles on everyone’s
face for the entire meeting. Enough to brighten everyone’s day. To
top that, our new member Erdene-bat was 45 minutes early yesterday to sacrament
meeting to fulfill his new calling as a greeter. He nailed it.

And that brings us to the transfer ...

Now two weeks ago the President in
an interview told me "I really see you as a trainer,” so there wasn't much
shock in the call, but my group has now officially usurped the
mission. Elder Stranski is in as the new AP. There could not be a
greater more humble person/elder in the world. Can’t say enough. Anyway ...Because we can’t leave the city, my group now
fills pretty much every DL and ZL spot here. There are two new
missionaries coming this transfer and the other will go to Elder Lloyd who will
now be serving in the same building as me. The best news ever is that I’m
staying in Songino which means I’ll totally be here for tsagan sar!!! I’m extremely excited
about that. We also are getting Sisters added to the ward which is a bit
of a burden off for me. It’s going to be awesome working tag team with
them!